U.S. Pat. No. 6,223,165, entitled “Method and apparatus to connect consumer to expert”, discloses a server which can store and display information about experts and assist in connecting the expert and consumer for real-time communication. In response to a keyword search or a category selection, the server presents a list of experts, including information such as availability, avatar, certification, compensation rate, quality score, etc. of the experts. After a consumer selects an expert from the list, a central controller places a telephone call to the consumer and a separate telephone call to the expert to establish a telephonic connection between the consumer and the expert. The central controller may monitor the duration of the telephonic connection to charge the consumer in accordance with the compensation rate of the expert and the length of the duration, and compensate the expert accordingly.